RE: Why Give God Credit for the Things We Do?
March 10, 2018 at 1:30 pm
(This post was last modified: March 10, 2018 at 1:39 pm by drfuzzy.)
I had a very religious friend in college. One day she was driving to class, looked in the rear-view mirror, and saw a pickup truck coming up behind her at high speed.
She quickly pulled into a parking lane to her right. The pickup truck roared safely past her vehicle and went on its merry way.
Suddenly she was telling everybody that she had a warning of danger, and that she felt warm, unseen arms around hers, steering her into the parking space.
God was so good! Her guardian angel was the BEST! She was protected day and night.
It's confirmation bias, it's complete egotism and fantasy: "I'm special, I have unseen protectors because I pray to God the right way."
I was a member of her Bible Study group then and although I was a Christian, I wanted to say, "No, you pulled into a parking space because you heard and saw a truck. Nothing happened." I didn't, of course. I'm not sure I would now. You can't reason with that kind of thinking.
No kidding. I have a friend whose son has been completely colorblind all of his life. They got him some of those EnChroma glasses, he went out to the flower garden and freaked out. "Is that orange?! Is that what orange looks like?? What is this?!" Yeah it was great. But instead of marveling at the science that created the glasses, his Mom was posting "God is so great!" stuff on Facebook because God gave her boy the ability to see color!
I was so tempted to post that GOD had made him colorblind . . .
She quickly pulled into a parking lane to her right. The pickup truck roared safely past her vehicle and went on its merry way.
Suddenly she was telling everybody that she had a warning of danger, and that she felt warm, unseen arms around hers, steering her into the parking space.
God was so good! Her guardian angel was the BEST! She was protected day and night.
It's confirmation bias, it's complete egotism and fantasy: "I'm special, I have unseen protectors because I pray to God the right way."
I was a member of her Bible Study group then and although I was a Christian, I wanted to say, "No, you pulled into a parking space because you heard and saw a truck. Nothing happened." I didn't, of course. I'm not sure I would now. You can't reason with that kind of thinking.
(March 10, 2018 at 1:26 pm)Aegon Wrote: We're an incredible species and it does bother me a tad when people credit something else for the greatness we've accomplished. Same for chocking things up to karma or fate.
No kidding. I have a friend whose son has been completely colorblind all of his life. They got him some of those EnChroma glasses, he went out to the flower garden and freaked out. "Is that orange?! Is that what orange looks like?? What is this?!" Yeah it was great. But instead of marveling at the science that created the glasses, his Mom was posting "God is so great!" stuff on Facebook because God gave her boy the ability to see color!
I was so tempted to post that GOD had made him colorblind . . .
"The family that prays together...is brainwashing their children."- Albert Einstein
